Fans have been treated to a first look at Star Wars' fourth villain-focused show set for release in just a couple of months. The star-faring franchise has been no stranger to dipping its toes into villainous fare for some of its streaming series. This has resulted in several epic deep dives into the dark side of the sprawling sci-fi universe after decades firmly focused on its more heroic characters.
The latest of these walks on the wild side is the upcoming Maul: Shadow Lord series from Clone Wars creator Dave Filoni. The new animated adventure stars Sam Witwer as the titular Dathomirian picking up the pieces of his life in the wake of Order 66.
Maul has just revealed its first-ever trailer, offering a peek behind the curtain at the dark and grimy Star Wars crime thriller.
The debut footage revealed a look at Maul's upcoming conquest across the galaxy, as he evades the law, seemingly takes on a new apprentice, and even comes to blows with a couple of Inquisitors along the way.
This will be the first time the twin-sabered Prequels character will play the hero of a solo Star Wars project, putting the iconic franchise villain under the microscope, unlike ever before, in a wholly new art style to boot.
Maul: Shadow Lord has been confirmed for an April 6 debut on Disney+, with two-episode drops running weekly through Star Wars' unofficial holiday, May the 4th.
Every Other Star Wars Villain Shows
The Book of Boba Fett
Technically the first Star Wars series to flip the script and focus on one of the franchise's iconic villains, The Book of Boba Fett popped the hood on the iconic masked bounty hunter and gave fans a whole new look at the character they had (at that point) known for decades.
The series was pitched as a deep dive into the mythos of the army green Mandalorian (played by Temuera Morrison) in the years following the original trilogy, as he emerged from the Sarlacc Pit and became a crime boss on the desert planet of Tatooine.
What fans ultimately got was so much more, as it not only explored the inner workings of the classic Star Wars character but also furthered the story of the ongoing MandoVerse between The Mandalorian Seasons 2 and 3.
Tales of the Empire
Tales of the Empire was the second time Star Wars take tackled one of its Tales of... anthology series. While the first batch of episodes was firmly planted on the Jedi side of things (even if part of that story was focused on a Jedi who'd eventually become a villain), the second was very clearly all about the worst of the worst in the Star Wars galaxy.
The May 2024 Star Wars series focused on a pair of Empire-associated characters in the years following the fall of the Jedi. This time around, the former Jedi Barriss Offee and the terrifying Dathomirian Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth took the spotlight.
These two bite-sized stories shed new light on the pair of Star Wars villains as they venture forth, in a way very similar to what fans will see in Maul: Shadow Lord, in a new version of the galaxy they are wholly unfamiliar with.
Tales of the Underworld
The second villain-focused Tales of... series arrived in 2025 with the release of Tales of the Underworld.
This season of the animated anthology turned its gaze to the scum and villainy of the Lucasian canon, centering on a pair of characters firmly planted in the seedy criminal underworld of the Star Wars universe.
Tales of the Underworld told the tale of long-time Clone Wars favorites Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane. Asajj's story was one of redemption, as she was given a second lease on life after her time as a dark side-using mercenary during the Prequels. Meanwhile, Cad Bane's half of the season recounted the iconic bounty hunter's origins.
BONUS: The Acolyte
While not technically exclusively villain-focused, like these other series, one would consider The Acolyte a Star Wars villain show. The 2024 streaming series took fans back before the events of the Prequel Trilogy, following the Jedi order right at the end of the High Republic era.
Much of the series was focused on a Jedi conspiracy that was meant to keep the origins of a pair of force-wielding twins a secret from the rest of the galaxy, but alongside that came one of the most interesting looks into the dark side that fans of the franchise have gotten to date.
In the High Republic show, The Good Place star Manny Jacinto burst onto the scene as the Sith apprentice Qimir. The masked big bad even took the series lead, Osha (Amandla Stenberg), under his wing, putting her on a potential path to Star Wars villainy.
